New owner of a 2010 Prius!

Congratulations and welcome to the crew! You'll discover many more things about this car that will continue to thrill you for quite some time!

 

Welcome & congrats! The Prius is the first car I've owned in a long time that I haven't considered selling within the first year of ownership. While it isn't perfect, it meets it's intended purpose very well.

 

Congrats--enjoy.

 

Welcome aboard and enjoy the ride! Be sure to read over the owner's manual if you have not.

 

I suggest this to everyone: replace all interior lighting bulbs to LED. Also marker lights and plate number lights. This should have been done by Toyota. Each of those 168 type bulbs uses 5W (=0.5 A at 12V) of energy, insane waste !

Also install BRIGHT LED DRLs that are on all the time, bright I mean at least 800lm, not a weak ones. Might be expensive if you are not DIY, but worse it. This will make you visible on the road.
Factory fogs are useless, almost invisible at daylight and use 55w per bulb.

P.S. 2012-model year LED DRLs seem bright enough. Does anybody know if they will fit 2010 Prius ?

- Alex

 

Welcome! I just got my 2010 Winter Grey Prius "V" a month ago and like you am learning about it and enjoying the "tech" that it offers.

The few things that Ive picked up since getting the car and reading on this forum are
1. it dos not have true auto headlights. if you leave the lights on all the time they will shut off after the car is turned off but they dont auto turn on and off based on the outside light. You have to either run with them on all the time or manually turn them off during the day. If they are on during daylight you will have dim dash lighting.
2. You found the cool storage tray
3. The 12v battery is not very long lasting (powerfull0 so if you are in the car doing things its better to leave it in "Ready" and allow the Hybrid system to power accessories then to run on ACC
4. There is a "aux and another 12v power source in the center console for connection
5. The dealer can make "customization " changes to some parameters like , single beep for reverse, all doors unlocked or only drivers door, seat belt warning.
6. If your on steep hills , the Prius can lock your brake so that you dont roll backwards when letting off the brake to press the accelerator and then it automatically releases the brake when the accelerator is presed.
7. Radar cruise control is great!

Have fun, Im still learning and this forum is a great resource

 

As a rule when I buy used cars, I would replace the oil & filter, and all air filters (engine & cabin). The cabin air filter seems to get filthier faster than the engine air filter. All the air filters are available at parts stores.

And don't be too quick about replacing the shifter with the push-button alternative. Drive the vehicle for a while first. I've realized that the standard shifter doesn't require me to look at it when shifting, and the push-button alternative probably would since I couldn't tell what's happening by feel.

 

How do you replace them with LED's? I would love to do that! What do you mean by DRL's, and where can I find those in LED?

 

DRL = daytime running light. They stay on during the day and turn off as you have your low beam on. There is a recent discussion here on Nokya DRLs (Nokya LED Fog Lights | PriusChat) with pictures - his is just an example. There is lots of them on ebay/amazon but most do not indicate total light output, probably because its very low. Those are not good. Again, it should be something like 800 lm, not 80 lm to be bright and visible

Also, 2012 has LED DRLs:

Round ones in the lower black grille are fog lights, and next to square orange turn signals, just below, are LED DRLs

As for LED interior lighting, there are several possibilities:
1) find out the type of the bulb and get a LED replacement from Amazon, ebay or e.g. superbrightleds.com
2) buy the whole kit (you can search priuschat, there was a post about the kit)
Use a thin blade to pop the light fixture cover open and replace the bulb.

Thanks,
- Alex

 

My motto is: Stay away from the mod forum or get the credit card out. The kids don't have to eat next month (actually, I don't have any kids, but you get the point).

Mike

 

You're starting down the slippery mod slope, beware! You can find kits of LED replacement "bulbs" for some or all of the interior & exterior bulbs (license plate lights). They just plug in for the original incandescent bulbs. Search on the Mod thread for leads on vendors of the kits. Replacing the bulbs in the overhead console means taking the console off as they come out the back.

 

Is there anywhere that actually lists what the bulb numbers are for all the interior lights and exterior lights? I have a wholesale source, but I don't know how to match what I need with what they have...

 

Try here:

Lamp Replacement Guide Home



- Alex